Are Cash Buyers on the decline?

It is 50 years since the first decimalised coins hit the high street of the UK, and five years since the Land Registry first starting recording details of cash versus mortgage transactions.

In 2017 just over 1.4 million properties were purchased in cash, the equivalent to just fewer than one in every three property purchases. This figure has remained remarkably consistent over the past five years.

The proportion of properties purchased with cash in 2017 compared to 2012 has fallen marginally in two-thirds of regions. The South West and Wales still top the money tree, thanks no doubt to their popularity as second home and visitor destinations.

Across the UK, there are 28 local authorities where more than half of sales in 2017 were cash, including West Somerset (66%), East Lindsey (59%), and North Norfolk (59%), with Powys, Pembrokeshire and the Isle of Anglesey all featuring in Wales. Kensington and Chelsea (55.4%) is the only London borough to feature in the list, the proportion of cash transactions on par with Scarborough (55%) and the Isle of Wight (55.6%).